Relative Value briefing sheet

All across Scotland, thousands of people care for children, because their natural parents can’t do so for a variety of reasons. These carers – known as “kinship carers” – are often grandparents, aunts and uncles but can also be family friends, and it is thought that there are more than 13,000 of them. Around 1 in 70 children in Scotland are estimated to be looked after either formally or informally by a kinship carer.